Page 15 of Evermore (The Never Sky #3)

Thorne

I couldn’t fucking see her beyond the dome of darkness she’d placed over herself.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She was mine.

Mine to have. Mine to own. Mine to fucking claim.

And a desperate bargain to save her had kept me from interfering with Alastor’s plan.

They really were the fucking same. Though she’d conned me into her bargain, and he’d simply demanded one.

The darkness swirled and pulsed, a living entity of shadow and despair.

I could feel Paesha’s panic, her fear, her rage, all of it radiating from within that impenetrable dome.

The air crackled with raw, untamed power, making the hair on my arms stand on end.

I reached out, desperate to break through, to reach her, but the shadows lashed out, leaving angry red welts across my skin.

“Paesha!” I roared, my voice lost in the howling wind that kicked up around us as Archer darted across the little meadow, sword in hand as he screamed and placed himself between Paesha and I.

“You bastard. You fucking bastard. You could have saved her. You let her die. You knew her, and she loved you like a brother, and still, you let her die.”

“Put the godsdamn sword away, Archie.”

“Don’t you fucking call me that.” He stepped forward, teeth gritted, shoulders heaving, as he placed the tip of the sword into the hollow of my neck, hand only slightly trembling.

Good for him. “I will kill you. I don’t care what kind of god you are.

I don’t care if you wrote the rules, or the worlds, or whatever you’re supposed to lord over. I will kill you, you bastard.”

The cold metal was a balm against my skin. The rage in his eyes burned hotter than any flame. Fueled by grief and betrayal, he was right to hate me. They all were.

The damn shadows continued to pulse around Paesha, her anguish a tangible force in the air. I could feel her power growing wild and uncontrolled, threatening to tear her apart. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I’d been effectively caged by bargains.

“You don’t understand,” I said. “None of you do.”

Archer’s grip on the sword tightened. “Then explain it.”

I closed my eyes, feeling the weight of millennia pressing down on me. How could I explain to a mortal the peril of worlds and whims of gods and their games? How could I tell him in the end none of it would matter? Not even his sister.

“All magic is failing. The gods are losing their power. We’re weakened.

” I grabbed the edge of his sword, letting it slice into my palm as I shoved it away and stepped toward him.

“You think I would have sat there and done nothing when Ezra’s men attacked if I could have helped it?

The flow of magic used to be an endless supply and now it’s an ebb and flow.

Sometimes great and sometimes there’s hardly anything there.

The cost of using it is so much steeper and I can promise you, Ezra knows exactly when to fucking strike. ”

His cold eyes never looked away from my face. “You were limited because you were holding that veil in place, weren’t you? Admit it. You put your little game ahead of my sister’s life and she fucking died for it.”

When I didn’t confirm or deny, he lifted the sword again. “One day, you will fall and I will be the one standing over your withering body. You’ll see my face and you’ll think of her the second before you die.”

Harlow would be one of thousands, but I couldn’t tell him that. He’d only throw more empty threats and probably a sword into my gut, and I had no time to heal from that right now.

“Be careful of the gods you threaten,” I said, clenching my teeth. Threatening me was one thing, but if he stood before the wrong person and said those words, he’d be joining his sister.

The shadows swarmed forward, a writhing mass of darkness. They enveloped Archer, wrapping around him like a protective cocoon, tendrils of inky blackness lashing out at me as I took another step toward him. He yelled in fury, likely trying to fight against the wall Paesha’s magic had formed.

She’d taken way too much fucking power. Way too much. It hadn’t affected Farris because he’d had no idea how to find that magic in himself, but the Huntress had no such qualms.

As the shadows danced and twisted, I could see flashes of Archer’s face through the gaps, his eyes wide with fear but his jaw set in defiance.

The darkness seemed to respond to his emotions, growing more agitated and violent.

But maybe it wasn’t the darkness. It was her.

Paesha, still hidden behind the wall of her breakdown.

“Paesha,” I whispered, trying to reach her.

The Remnants hissed and stretched for me, scraping down my tattered shirt until they drew blood again. A manifestation of her fury, no doubt.

“Archer, you have to talk to her. She’s lost control.”

The door to the house flew open with a resounding bang.

Quill burst through the opening. The child’s long curly hair was a mess of tangles behind her as she ran.

Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground.

She raced across the yard, her eyes wild and her face contorted with a mixture of anger and desperation.

I didn’t fear Archer. Nor the raging vestiges of magic from Paesha’s tantrum, but the child? The Fera? That look in her eyes as she stared me down sent a shiver down my spine. She did not know what she was capable of. No one truly did.

“Quill, no!” A red-haired woman’s voice rang out, sharp and panicked. “Stay out of it!”

But the girl paid no heed to her friend’s warnings.

She charged forward, her arms outstretched as if she could physically push back the encroaching shadows.

The child, freshly nine if I remembered right, threw her hands on her hips as she stood toe to toe with me, looking back into the darkness that consumed Paesha and Archer only once. “What did you do?”

“Go back inside like you were told,” I warned the child.

The Remnants surged forward. They likely meant to form a barrier around the Fera also, but it was clear Paesha had no control and even if she did, I’m not sure the Fera would have allowed it, though I had no idea the reach of her blossoming power either, nor did I know how she was affected by the god’s current plight.

The air shimmered and pulsed, like heat waves rising from scorched earth. Tendrils of energy, invisible yet palpable, coiled around her slight frame, building in intensity with each ragged breath she drew. She was everything. And nothing. Untrained. Unclaimed. And dangerous as fuck.

The weight of her stare pressed down on me, heavy as a physical blow. “Let them out.”

The shadows surrounding Paesha and Archer pulsed in response to Quill’s command, feeding off her anger.

They grew thicker, darker, more menacing.

The inky tendrils lashed out with renewed vigor, leaving fresh gashes across my skin wherever they struck.

Still, I fucking stood there, a lamb to slaughter, because I couldn’t leave her.

If I walked away, I may never get a chance to speak to her again.

That was absolutely something Alastor would do.

And she was mine. Not his. Not even this feral little child’s. She was fucking mine.

Quill’s magic swelled, a rising tide of raw, untamed power. It crackled in the air, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. The ground beneath our feet began to tremble, fine cracks spider webbing through the packed earth.

“You get the hell away from my family,” Quill said, her voice low and slow and almost adorable, if not for the threat.

“I’m not here to cause harm.”

“You’re the liar, aren’t you?” she asked, spreading her feet as if she meant to attack me.

“Everyone lies.”

“Maybe in your world,” she said with an eerie smile. “But in this one, it’s against the rules.”

I took a step back, trying to lure her away from Paesha’s Remnants. If she continued to feed them her anger, this wouldn’t end well.

I could feel Paesha’s panic and rage building to a fever pitch behind that dark barrier. If I didn’t diffuse this soon, magic could tear this place apart. Mine, hers, or the kid’s. Either way, this was a melting pot of trouble.

“Quill,” I said, forcing my voice to stay calm. “That’s your name, isn’t it? You need to step back. You’re making it worse.”

“No!” she shouted. The ground shook beneath our feet. “You’re the one making it worse! You need to leave!”

“Story of my life, kid. Now be a good girl and go back to your house.”

“Maybe you should be a good boy and f?—.”

“Quill!” the other woman shouted.

She winced, showing the first break in her exterior. “Sorry, Thea, but he’s the bad guy.”

True again.

“Quill,” a voice said from behind me. I straightened, that voice of gravel grating down my spine as Aeris stepped forward.

With her silver hair pulled back into a bun and a simple frock style dress on, I hardly recognized her.

“You mustn’t anger a Keeper. Look at Paesha.

She’s suffering in there. We need to help her, and we can’t do that while we’re fighting, can we? ”

The goddess took my side, never once making eye contact, speaking to the child as if she were a frightened animal.

“But he’s not supposed to be here,” Quill said, pointing at me. “He’s a bad man.”

“That may very well be, little bird, but right now we need to focus on helping the Huntress,” Aeris said gently. “The more we fight, the more her magic lashes out. Can you feel it?”

Quill’s brow furrowed. The ground stopped shaking. “I… I can feel it,” she admitted reluctantly. “It hurts.”

“That’s right,” Aeris nodded. “Paesha is in pain, and her magic is responding to that pain. We need to calm her down, not make things worse. Can you help me do that?”

The child hesitated, her eyes darting between Aeris, me, and the swirling mass of shadows that contained Paesha and Archer. Finally, she gave a small nod.

“Good,” Aeris smiled. She turned to me, her silver eyes sharp. “Keeper, I think it’s best if you step back for now. Your presence is only agitating things further.”

I clenched my jaw, wanting to argue. But she was right. With a final glance at the writhing darkness, I took several steps back, eyes locked with fucking Aeris, who somehow waltzed in here and took control as if she already had her fist around this family.

“I think you need to go further,” she said, bowing her head, though I could see the corners of her mouth lift. “You’ve done enough this day.”

If I hadn’t already had the satisfaction of punching my brother in the godsdamn face today, I’d be tempted to hunt him down for the release. I couldn’t do shit to her with this audience, and she fucking knew it. Aeris had me by the balls.

She knelt beside Quill, speaking softly to the child, her silver hair gleaming in the fading sunlight. The shadows around Paesha and Archer calmed slightly.

Aeris glanced over her shoulder at me, a triumphant glint in her eyes. “I said, you need to go further, Keeper. Your presence here is no longer required.”

The sheer audacity of her dismissal made my blood boil. This was my game, my rules, my fucking story. And yet here I stood, powerless and pushed aside by a goddess who should know her place.

I wanted nothing more than to unleash my full power, to show them all exactly who they were dealing with.

To remind Aeris of her position in the hierarchy of the gods.

But as I looked at the scene before me, Quill radiating untapped power, the other woman hovering protectively nearby, and the swirling mass of shadows that held Paesha and Archer, I knew I couldn’t risk it.

So I fucking swallowed my pride and walked away, even though leaving them in the hands of Aeris was probably the most foolish thing I could have ever done.